Nightmares
by DefiniteEnding
Summary: Again, I suck at summaries.  Sasuke's been plagued by nightmares every ight for the past while and Itachi's been aware the whole time. One night it gets really bad and he goes to comfort his brother.  NOT YAOI


Second fic! WOO! After I got three, yeah three's a lot to me, reviews on my other fic, I decided to put another one up. I KNOW THIS ONE'S SHORTER DX. I ran out of ideas at the end and decided that 952 words was enough. LOL Close to 1000, which is roughly three pages. So yeah, read on!

.:~:.

Itachi's eyes opened as he heard a soft, muffled yell. The Uchiha sat up in his bed and stared sleepily at the wall on the other side of the room, where the sound had come from.

It only took him a moment to realize that it had been Sasuke who'd made the sound. His first thought was that something bad had happened to Sasuke. He quickly labelled that as incorrect. His second thought was that Sasuke was having another nightmare. He'd been having an increasingly worrying amount lately. It was to the point where Itachi was worried about him.

The older Uchiha sibling got up from his bed and walked across the room to the door, sliding it open. He shivered a bit in the cold of late autumn and let out a breath, the air turning to steam before him. But the elder brother ignored the cold and instead walked the short distance to Sasuke's door and slowly opened the door, slipping into the room as silently as possible and shutting the door equally as quiet.

Before he'd even turned to look at Sasuke he could tell he was having another nightmare by the way he was groaning, whimpering, and shifting in his sleep. Itachi turned around to face him and he could just barely make out Sasuke's figure in the darkened room.

His younger brother was moving fitfully in his sleep, trapped in the darkest realms of the dreaming world. His head kept tossing from one side to the other as Itachi watched him. Ten seconds later, Sasuke whimpered.

Itachi walked across the room, placing each foot down as lightly as possible, until he reached his brother's side and sat down beside him on the bed. When his brother still showed no sign of improvement, Itachi frowned. Normally just being there was enough to soothe him and get him out of his dreadful dream.

It appeared Itachi would have to wake him this time. The elder Uchiha sibling reached out to grasp Sasuke's shoulder but stopped when Sasuke's head turned to the side and he murmured in his sleep. "Itachi …"

Itachi blinked and moved his hand back to rest in his lap. 'He's … dreaming about me?' He thought, bewildered. Obviously it must be one Hell of a nightmare then. Itachi knew he wasn't exactly the most kind, caring brother in the world. Heck, he hardly ever had time for his brother due to being in the ANBU. But he did love him.

Sasuke's body suddenly jerked and went still. A moment later his eyes opened a crack. Itachi watched as tears suddenly spilled out from the corners of his eyes. Sasuke bit his lip but couldn't hold back a sob.

"Itachi …" He sobbed. "Why …"

'Why what?' Itachi wanted to ask but remained silent. He wasn't exactly sure what to do in this particular situation. He wanted to reach out to Sasuke, to hold him and make him feel better. But he knew that would only make things worse, especially if the younger Uchiha's nightmare had been about him. He wasn't even sure if he should be there or not.

But then Sasuke opened his eyes a bit wider and his gaze landed on his older brother. He stared at him, his tears momentarily halting, and then he sat up and wiped at his face with his shirt sleeve as if he were ashamed to be crying. The younger looked away from his brother but the moment he was looking away and down at the blankets his tears started falling again.

"Baka …" He whispered, his shoulders shaking.

Itachi, now understanding that it was okay to touch him, reached over and wrapped his arms around him. Sasuke reached up and clung to the fabric of his shirt, burying his face in his chest and soaking his shirt with his tears.

The two remained there for at least ten minutes, with Itachi rubbing his brother's back and murmuring things like "it's alright" and 'everything's going to be okay", until Sasuke finally calmed down and was simply clinging lightly to his brother.

"Sasuke?" Itachi said, his voice quiet.

"Hn?"

"Are you alright?"

The younger didn't respond for a while before he nodded a bit. "Hn …" He murmured. Itachi sighed and moved to rub his back again, sensing that another round of tears were coming.

"Want to talk?" He asked though he knew his brother was going to say no. He always did when the elder asked him about his nightmares during the day, the rare occasions that he did ask.

It was obvious that Sasuke was trying to hold back his tears as he shook his head. Itachi nodded a bit. As expected. Itachi started rocking back and forth to try and help his eight year old brother fall back to sleep.

Sasuke yawned widely and snuggled against his older brother, cuddling up against him. In only a few moments he was asleep. Itachi let go of him and gently pried his hands off of his shirt before laying his little brother down.

He smiled softly at his now peaceful face. He looked so young and innocent when he slept. Itachi envied him. The older leaned forward until their foreheads were almost touching, still smiling. Sasuke's mouth was open just a bit as he breathed.

"Sweet dreams, Sasuke." Itachi whispered before sitting back up. He watched his brother's face to make sure he wasn't going to fall into the nightmare realm again. When nothing happened for several minutes, he smiled and got up, slinking across the room and leaving.

Just as he was leaving the room, he thought he heard his brother's soft words of, "Good night, Nii-san."

.:~:.

Well, what did ya think? I found this one less good than my last one, but my writing varies. I write good some days and more poorly the next. It's weird, don't ya think. O_o Oh well. I wrote something and that's all that matters.

Flames will be laughed at, printed out, and stuck up on the wall for future reference.


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